ELECTRONIC DEPOSIT A SYSTEM ANYONE CAN BANK ON

For safety, for simplicity, for on-time receipt of money, nothing beats

''direct deposit.'' That`s the system of wiring your wages, Social Security benefits or other government benefits directly to your bank instead of sending you a check.

You face no lines at the teller windows. Your money is never delayed in the mail. The funds land in your account on the day they`re paid and can be drawn on right away. If your company offers direct deposit, try it. You`ll like it.

Since May, 1988, the Social Security Administration has assumed that new beneficiaries would take direct deposit, unless they objected. Fifty-one percent of all checks are delivered this way.

Money transmitted electronically is ''very rarely lost,'' said Social Security spokesman Phil Gambino. But if a payment doesn`t arrive, you follow the same procedures you would with a lost check: Call the local Social Security office or 1-800-234-5772, for a missing-payment search.

In the future, you may not even need a bank account to receive government benefits electronically. Since Nov. 1, a pilot project in Baltimore has been experimenting with a form of direct deposit for up to 1,000 recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) who have no banking relationship.

Each beneficiary is being issued the equivalent of an automated teller card. Using it, they can withdraw their SSI money from any automated teller owned by the First National Bank of Maryland or the MOST ATM network it participates in. They also can get their funds from money machines in grocery stores and other retail outlets.

Formerly, these SSI recipients paid fees to get their checks cashed and had to worry about protecting their lump sums from theft. Now, they can draw on their benefits as they need them, at no charge.

Maryland is running a similar experiment for distributing welfare benefits. New York City has been making welfare payments electronically for several years. Besides being cheaper than paper checks, such systems eliminate losses from mail theft and check fraud (but may substitute losses from automated teller machine crime).

The issue of cashing government checks is warming up in Congress. Bills have been introduced to require depository institutions to cash government checks of up to $1,500 for local people who aren`t regular bank customers. Recipients would register for the service; check-cashing fees would have to be low.

Such a law is needed, says the Consumer Federation of America, to provide an alternative to neighborhood check-cashing services. Fees for cashing government checks run in the area of 1 to 6 percent, the federation reports. Over a year, it can cost more to get paychecks, Social Security or welfare checks cashed than it might to maintain a bank account.

But many lower-income people are strangers to banks. Electronic-payment systems, like the one being tried in Baltimore, are the right idea.

Furthermore, not all banks offer the cheap, bare-bones accounts that lower-income people need. Another bill in Congress would require all depository institutions to offer basic-banking accounts-low fees, a $25 minimum balance, a $1,000 maximum, 10 transactions a month-so the financial system could accommodate everyone who wanted in.

A handful of states have moved in this direction. Massachusetts prohibits state-chartered banks from assessing service charges on accounts held by senior citizens and young people. Connecticut requires banks to cash state welfare checks at no charge.

Many banks in other states offer these services voluntarily, though how many is in dispute. Bankers say the majority do; consumer groups say that`s not so. In any case, the pressure for basic-banking laws helps drive the bankers` ''voluntary'' efforts. The bankers hope to prove that legislation isn`t needed to provide financial services to lower-income customers. Let`s hope they`re right.